Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that Tehran has no interest in seeking a ceasefire or entering negotiations with the United States following nearly a week of war.

In an interview with NBC News, Araghchi said Iran believes it can withstand a potential U.S. invasion if President Donald Trump decides to escalate the conflict further.

“And that would be a big disaster for them,” Araghchi said.

Araghchi argued that the United States has already failed to achieve its objectives in the current war.

“It is clear that the U.S. has failed to achieve its main goal, which was clean, rapid victory,” he said. “They failed to achieve that, and now they are trying to justify why they did attack us.”

According to the Iranian diplomat, Washington has repeatedly shifted its reasoning for launching the strikes.

“They have presented so many different reasons, but none of them worked. And now they are talking about plan B. I believe plan B would be an even bigger failure,” he said.

Araghchi insisted that the conflict was initiated by the United States.

“This is a war of choice by the United States,” he said. “We are not asking for a ceasefire, and we don’t see any reason why we should negotiate.”

He added that Iran has lost trust in negotiations with Washington.

“Negotiate with the U.S. when we negotiated with them twice, and every time they attacked us in the middle of negotiations?” he said. “So there is no request for a ceasefire by us, and there is no request for negotiation with the U.S. from us.”

Araghchi also defended Iran’s strikes across the region, saying Tehran has not targeted neighboring countries despite attacks landing in several Arab states.

“We have not attacked our neighbors. We have not attacked Muslim countries,” he said. “We have attacked American targets and American bases, American installations, which are unfortunately located in the soils of our neighbors.”

He said he has personally communicated with foreign ministers from those countries to explain Iran’s position.

“We are not targeting you. We have no problem with you. We are only targeting American installations,” he said.

Addressing reports of an attack on an elementary school in Minab that killed dozens of children, Araghchi claimed Iran’s military believes either the United States or Israel was responsible.

“Our military said 171 children were killed. So it is either U.S. or Israel. What is the difference?” he said.

Araghchi said the attacks carried out during negotiations have destroyed any remaining trust in diplomatic talks.

“The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States,” he said. “Especially with this administration.”

He added that Iranian officials had been negotiating with American representatives last year and earlier this year before the fighting began.

“We negotiated twice, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us,” he said. “So we see no reason why we should engage once again with those who are not honest in negotiation and do not enter negotiations in good faith.”

Despite the escalating conflict, Araghchi said he believes there will ultimately be no clear victor.

“There is no winner in this war,” he said. “Our win is to be able to resist against illegal goals, and this is what we have done so far.”

Regarding Iran’s leadership crisis following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Araghchi said the process to select a successor will be handled through constitutional procedures.

“There are many rumors around, but we have to wait for the Assembly of Experts to choose a new supreme leader,” he said, adding that the ongoing war could delay the process.

“That is absolutely the business of the Iranian people, and nobody can interfere.”

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